


before this bitter mess becomes a disease

by tanhaharreh



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-17
Updated: 2014-12-17
Packaged: 2018-03-01 21:23:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2788241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanhaharreh/pseuds/tanhaharreh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt: Harry and Louis have a bunch of mutual friends who keep on trying to set them up/get them to meet but it never works out until it accidentally does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	before this bitter mess becomes a disease

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bitofabop](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitofabop/gifts).



> I played a little loose with this prompt, so sorry but thank you for it reversedirection! All of your prompts were fantastic and I hope i did a good enough job with it. Also Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
> 
> Also, thank you to Sophie and Zoe for organising this whole fic exchange! I imagine it was a huge job and you're both troopers for doing it all (also sorry i posted this late and thanks for being understanding).
> 
> Alright, this is the first fan fiction I have ever written, and the first piece of writing that is not an academic essay I have written in five years. I hope you enjoy it! I certainly enjoyed writing it.
> 
> Title from Cold War Kids "All This Could Be Yours"

Date One: When Liam pushes Louis to do it and Louis screws it up

It’s a Saturday night, and Louis is laying in bed alone scowling at his laptop screen playing True Detective and a hardly paying attention to the show. Realising he hasn’t followed the last ten minutes of dialogue he sighs, pausing the episode on Matthew McConaughey’s confusingly unattractive face and rolling onto his side, reaching beside his bed and checking his phone where it’s connected to the charger. Nothing. He sighs again, staring up at the ceiling pondering what he could possibly do to relieve the mind numbing boredom permeating his being (so he's a bit dramatic, whatever). Scanning his phone again he sees the time is 8:30, too early even at a stretch to throw in the towel and just call it an early night, but a group of recently coupled off mates and exams looming also rules out sending a group text to gage interest in going out for a drink.

Feeling very sorry for himself he pulls himself out of his single bed (to make the situation even worse he’s sleeping on a single mattress temporarily because Zayn threw his queen out the window on a long, drunk night after many beers and possibly just one too many ping pong balls to the face from Louis) and trudges into his kitchen to hopefully find human contact of some sort or at the very least a large cuppa. Filled with tea or wine, either will do. Luckily he doesn’t have to resort to pouring a large mug of red wine for one as he spies both of his roommates sitting on the mismatched couches in their living area (if you can call three couches of different size and appearance and a tv resting upon an empty keg they found a living area).

“Zayn”, he states simply, flopping onto the couch beside his friend and knocking his laptop from his knees, “i’m bored and alone and that show is nowhere near as good as you said it would be.”

Zayn rolls his eyes, pushing Louis’ cheek off his lap and moving away from him, “Whatever Lou, you asked for a recommendation and i gave you one, now what do you want”.

Louis bristles, this hostility is not what he was expecting nor is it what he wants and refusing to accept it he pushes his face further onto Zayn and stares pleadingly at him, throwing a sock from the floor at his other housemate Liam to get his attention as well. 

“Just because the two of you have finally found girlfriends that you spend all of your bloody time with and now consider yourselves above” Louis pauses for emphasis, staring soulfully into Zayn’s disinterested eyes and scanning across the room to do the same to Liam, only to notice that instead of staring back he is smirking and typing away on his phone, appearing to be entirely unaware of Louis’ heartache, “going out and getting pissed with your best friend Louis and helping him pick up a nice lad to take home doesn’t mean you can ignore me in our very own house.” 

Liam giggles and bites his lower lip, eyes flickering up from his phone to look Louis and Zayn. Seeing their eyes already firmly in his direction, he pauses and frowns, “What are you on about?”

Louis jumps up from his spot on the couch and stalks over to grab Liam’s phone and throw it across the room. Liam is much bigger than he is, but after a brief tussle Louis licks his arm, distracting him enough to provoke a disgusted groan and slight weakening in his grip, allowing Louis to steal his iPhone, read the screen to see the words “Sophia Smith” and “panties” and lets out a disgusted groan of his own, pocketing the phone and moving away.

“Were you sexting while we were in the room Liam?” he asks, revulsion on his face and the sound of a laptop closing dramatically and a loud sigh ringing out behind him.

“What, no, Sophia and I were just having a discussion” Liam stammers out, not even attempting to retrieve his phone from Louis’ back pocket, “what were you saying before that though?”

“I’m going to ignore how blatantly obvious that conversation change is and allow it”, Louis responds, pausing to give Liam an unimpressed face, “I was complaining to Zayn about how extremely unfun the two of you are these days and how extremely unfun my Saturday nights have become as a result of that. Just because you guys are in happy relationships” he sneers, “does not mean that I am also content to stay at home all the time, cuddling my loved one or texting them or whatever you guys spend all your time doing.”

“Uh Lou, you set me up with Sophia” Liam remarks confusedly, “and you’re the one who encouraged Zayn to just ask Pez out after he spent months flirting and pining after her.”

“Both excellent points Liam, you wouldn’t be happy if it weren’t for me, now you owe me a favour and one of the two of you is now obliged to find me a tall, handsome gentleman caller. How are you going to do that sitting at home at prime time on a Saturday night?”

“Have you tried tinder mate?” Zayn chimes in from behind Louis, “Pez’s mate Jade uses it and Pez reckons she’s never seen someone on so many dates in her life, a lot of them well fit too.”

“No, Lou, you can’t use an internet app to meet boys!” Liam interrupts looking concerned, “I saw an article on my Facebook feed about a chick just the other week who met some guy on like okcupid or whatever and he like started stalking her after just the one date and then broke into her house and stole a bunch of her panties and left her like this creepy letter wrapped around a knife!”

“Okay, Liam, firstly literally never say the word panties to me again, really I mean ever, and secondly I think I can hold my own and spot a weirdo much better than that chick, I mean really that seems like the kind of bloke you know right of the bat is into some creepy shit”. Louis pauses, pondering his options, “regardless, i’m pretty sure tinder needs like a Facebook account to be attached to the profiles and you can like, change the ages of who can see you so it’s a bit safer, yeah?” He reaches for his phone, bringing up the app store and typing “tinder” in the search bar. “I mean we can all just have a look together now and if all the blokes are creepy we’ll just have a laugh at it and then I’ll delete it.”

“Whatever man, just don’t expect me to come to some gay bar with you to make sure you don’t get abducted” Liam says, even though they all know that that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

“Oooh it’s downloaded!”, Louis taps his screen to open the app, quickly authorising the connection to his Facebook profile and starting to set up his profile. “Ugh, you need to write about yourself, what should i put? I can never think of anything to put in these things”

“Just put some emojis or something man”, Zayn peers over his shoulder, “it’s like fun and mysterious or something. Means you don’t have to think of anything atleast, Pez was telling me about how her and Jade laugh at some of the shit blokes write there, like bullshit quotes from Braveheart and weird jokes.”

Louis takes a moment to cringe at the state of his gender and after a quick scroll through the emojis chooses the dancing woman in the red dress and nothing else. “There, mysterious”, he says with a grin, keen to start looking through the other profiles. He sets the discovery preferences to “Male only” and “20 - 28” and then sits back on the couch, beckoning for Zayn and Liam to sit on either side of him. 

After several squeals from all three boys at some of the photos presented to them - “Oh god he has a tattoo of a snow leopard on his lower back!” “Hey, i think that selfie was taken in my gym” - Louis has officially three matches, the “it’s a match” screen provoking more squeals each time it came up, and is about to call it a night when a profile of a boy holding a black and white cat smiling at the camera pops up.

“Wait, show me that!” Liam grasps for the phone and fails to snatch it out of Louis’ hands, “whatever, i think that might be Harry! He’s mates with Niall, you know the Irish bloke I play football with? He’s a good guy! Show me the screen” Louis reluctantly tilts the screen so Liam can see it more clearly, “yeah that’s definitely him, swipe right mate he’s cool.” As reluctant at Louis is to let Liam have his way, scrolling through the other photos available he can see that Harry does seem pretty attractive, tattoos lacing his arms, quirky headscarves making a regular appearance around his head. He even has the emoji of the dancing woman in his description as well.

“Well Niall has always seemed alright, I suppose I can trust his judgement in friends” Louis swipes right and immediately sees the “it’s a match” screen, choosing to keep his excited noise internal this time. He smiles down at the screen, exiting the app and rubbing his hands over his face, suddenly genuinely tired and ready for the cuppa he was considering earlier. “Lads, it’s been great but i think it’s time for me to go to bed”, he stands up. stretching out his back muscles and ignoring Liam reaching into his pocket to get his phone back. 

“Might want to take a leaf out of my book and do some sexting of your own Lou, it’s been a while”, he hears from behind him as he walks away. Pausing briefly in his journey to the kettle he turns and glowers at Liam, only to get an amused grin in response. He gives Liam the finger, looking away, “No worries Liam, I’ll be sure to take a leaf out of your book and mention my ‘snake habitat’ next time i’m engaging in some erotic texts.” He pours his tea and leaves the room, smiling to himself at Liam’s started cough and a final disgusted groan from Zayn.

—————————————————————

Two days later and Louis is high on the attention he’s getting from tinder. Every bloke he swipes right on is a match and they’re all talking to him. Some of them fall into the boring but pretty category, their constant “haha”’s and lack of any real conversation cutting the amount of effort Louis puts into the match, but there are a few that show some real promise. Firstly there’s Aidan, who’s his age and studying music at uni. He has nice hair and is in general very nice to talk to, Louis smiles each time his name pops up on his phone (they’ve exchanged numbers so have levelled up from tinder) and has even gone for the Facebook stalk, which all seemed very promising. Aidan wants to meet up, and they’re trying to arrange a time and place to meet in person.

Then there’s Harry. Harry who he’s just seemed to get on with from the word go, who always asks him about his day and who always has these strange, long anecdotes about his day that Louis can handle make sense of most of the time, but somehow manage to be hopelessly endearing and hilarious anyway. They’ve spoken all about their interests and what they’re studying, what’s planned for the break and the stupid things they’ve done while drunk, but for some reason Louis just can’t figure out completely where they stand. Sometimes he can’t even tell if Harry’s interested, he thinks he is if his quick responses are anything to go by, but Liam said he was just a naturally flirty and attentive guy, so maybe he’s just being polite because of their mutual friends. Regardless, they’re planning to meet up soon as well.

“Just meet at the pub near uni, it’s busy enough that it’s safe and casual enough that you can just figure it all out as it goes” Liam is saying to Louis as they walk to class, “just go for lunch or a pint in the afternoon.”

Louis ponders the idea, looking at the “this weekend? :)” he’d gotten from Aiden that morning. “Yeah alright”, he replies, starting to type a response suggesting the pub for lunch on Saturday. He groans, looking at Harry’s most recent message describing his goddaughter he babysat the previous night, smiling at the story he’d described and thinking out loud, “I don’t know what to do about Harry though, I can’t tell if he’d be interested in meeting up or if he’s just kind of talking cause he like to talk? And cause I know Niall and he doesn’t want to be rude.”

Liam sighs, pausing before turning down a separate path to get to his class, “Just suggest the same kind of thing to him Lou, I’m sure he’d want to meet you in person. Like i told you he’s just naturally a comfortable guy, just because he’s mellow doesn’t mean he’s just talking to you for no reason.” He pats Louis on the back in a weird bro way Louis does not appreciate and power walks away. Louis looks back at his phone, thinking and deciding reluctantly that Liam might be right, so texts Harry the exact same plan to meet up the following weekend, but on the Sunday. 

Both Harry and Aiden reply while Louis’ in class with a resounding yes.

—————————————————————

 

Louis’ date with Aiden comes around quicker than he anticipated, the week of revision distracting him sufficiently so that by the time it’s eleven in the morning on Saturday, all of his nice clothes are wet from the wash or covered in suspicious smelling liquids, and he’s about to have a mental breakdown. He’s snapped at Liam already, calling him stupid and insulting his hair harshly enough that Liam’s retreated to his own room and Louis doesn’t dare to ask to borrow any of his clothes, but Zayn’s are too small on him and all of his favourite trousers are completely drenched. He flops down onto his damp clothing covered bed and groans loudly into the pile. 

He stands and walks back to his closet, staring despairingly at the mess inside and trying to find anything even remotely wearable on a date and finds nothing, ofcourse.

Which is how Louis ends up walking into the pub near his uni twenty minutes late, wearing wet black jeans that Zayn’s hairdryer did nothing to improve and a rash forming around his thighs from the way the jeans rubbed on the walk over. Atleast he found his tight black tshirt to wear with them, the all black ensemble doing wonders to accentuate his curves.

He scans the room looking for Aiden and spots him playing on his phone at one of the smaller tables. Smiling, he starts to walk over, raising his hand to get his attention.

“Louis?” he hears from behind him. He turns around slowly, having just made eye contact with Aiden who grinned upon seeing him, undeniably pleased with his appearance. He freezes and his heart drops as he finishes turning and notices Harry leaning back on the bar, smiling at him and looking exceptionally lovely. Harry straightens up his posture from leaning, and starts to walk over to Louis, dimple showing in one of his cheeks and boots clicking against the hardwood floor. His hair is loose and curling around his face, longer at the back where it brushes the collar of the loose buttoned shirt he’s wearing.

“Hey, I was just about to text you”, he says, shyly giving Louis a kiss on the cheek, “was worried you weren’t coming or something, twenty minutes is a bit tardy don’t you think”, he pulls back, giving Louis a cheeky smile, which turns into a look of confusion as he takes in Louis’ look of horror. “Oh god, sorry, i overdid it with the kiss didn’t I, I’m so sorry I’m just really affectionate and sometimes I forget other people are a bit less into it, one of my lecturers once even sat me down and starting telling me about his wife and kids and the fact that he was very happily married and i had no idea what he was on about and then I realised and yeah, so, sorry about being a bit up in your space just then.” He pauses, looking at Louis imploringly, “Is everything okay?”

Louis finally remembers how to move his limbs and looks over his shoulder at where Aiden had been sitting, silently screaming as he sees him making his way over towards he and Harry, looking puzzled and wary. 

“Um Harry I don’t know what to say” he stammers out, looking around nervously and wiping his sweaty hands on his jeans, momentarily and unfortunately forgetting the fact that they are also damp. 

“Hiya Louis”, Aiden reaches Louis and Harry and looks between them, awkwardly pulling Louis away from Harry and giving him a hug, “it’s really nice finally seeing you, who’s this?” he looks over at Harry questioningly.

Louis fish mouths, still struggling to even grasp the situation at hand and not having a single idea of how he’s going to explain himself to either of the two very handsome boys he has just met.

“Um”, he says eloquently, giggling nervously and then cringing at how insane sounding it was. “This is Harry”, he pauses, looks over to Harry seeing him looking as bewildered as Aiden, “I also have been talking to him on tinder and have apparently accidentally told him to meet me the same time I organised to meet you” he rushes out.

Brutal honesty. Aiden continues to look confused, and Harry’s troubled expression falls into a mixture of disappointment and sadness, the transformation occurring before Louis eyes and making him feel the worst he had since walking in. Since before he pulled on his wet jeans even.

“Oh my god sorry were you guys on a date?” Harry mumbles, stepping back away from the duo. “Shit I didn’t realise, I must of like, read the day you texted me wrong Lou. But um, I guess I’ll just head off then, like, leave you to it. It was really nice meeting you though Louis, um, have a fun lunch.” He smiles briefly, leaving Louis gawping as he backs away and power walks away from him, striding to the door and looking back when he reaches it, looking away quickly when he realises that Louis and Aiden are still watching him. The door slams behind him when he leaves, the sound echoing through the bar. 

“Wow, that was uncomfortable” Aiden smiles at Louis, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder, “it’s all good though I get how tinder is, playing the field and that. I’d be surprised if you didn't have any other dates lined up to be honest, shitty scheduling though hey.” He looks down at Louis, pausing momentarily as he tries to read his mood. “I’m still up for lunch if you are though? Maybe a beer to take the edge off, you look like you could probably use one mate.”

“Uh, I think yes”, Louis struggles to say, still reeling from the events that just occurred. He clears his throat, stepping from side to side and looking at his feet for a second, pulling himself back together and looking back up at Aiden with a smile, “yes definitely”, he laughs, Aiden smiling with him in relief, “I might run to the loo first though, do you mind ordering me one? Won’t be long.”

“Yeah, definitely mate no worries” Aiden moves towards the bar, “you saw where I got a table yeah?” he points towards the vacant table he’d been sitting at previously, smiling again when Louis nods in recognition. “I’ll see you in a sec”.

Louis walks to the bathroom, washing his hands and face upon entry, gathering his thoughts and calming his speeding heart. He pulls out his phone to message Harry, “sooo sorry about that mate pretty awkward haha :) meant to say tomorrow when i messaged you, any chance you’d be free to meet then?”

Harry doesn’t reply, and Aiden is lovely but all Louis can think about is Harry.

—————————————

 

Date Two: Niall intervenes and Harry screws it up

“I’m telling ya mate, it’s a perfect match and i want ya to have another crack”.

Harry sighs, breathing deeply as he stretches his legs out, leaning forward to touch his toes and recover from the long run he’d just taken. All he did was leave the house for an hour, leaving a sleeping Niall to have a lie in, however when he arrived home Niall was in a flurry, the living room was void of furniture and Niall was sitting on his laptop, creating a “party playlist mate, you know i’ve a reputation i need to uphold”. Somehow in the hour he’d been gone, Niall had gone and made an event for a house party at their flat for that very night, inviting upwards of sixty people, claiming to be “sick of all this studying shit, we need a proper piss up to fucking relax a bit before exams”, despite Harry’s fairly reasonable claims that the relaxing and drinking is really meant for after exams. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), he knows Niall’s real intentions behind this party, and it’s definitely nothing to do with exam relaxing or whatever he’s saying.

“Niall he was on another date when I got there, and the guy he was with looked well into him”, Harry cringes, replying the memory of being at the pub again and shaking his head to himself,”I don’t want to like, step on any toes and like Louis seemed really happy to see him, I should just leave it, I embarrassed myself enough that I’m sure any possible attraction is gone anyway”. It’s not that he doesn’t want to see Louis again, not at all. The conversations they had been having in the week they messaged each other had been so much fun, Harry had loved starting to get to know Louis and had been so excited to finally meet him. Seeing him in the flesh had sealed the deal even more so, as not only was this boy sweet and hilarious over messages, he was also apparently insanely good looking. As soon as Harry had seen him walk in he’s been infatuated with his appearance, the photos on tinder and that Niall had shown him (possibly after two hours of nagging) had not given him anywhere near enough credit.

But he was with another guy, and as much as Harry has loved playing the field with casual hook-ups in the past, it’s not what he’s looking for anymore.

“Whatever mate, you do what you want to do but I really think you and Lou would be great together, I can’t believe i didn’t think of it sooner.” Niall taps away at his computer, downloading new music to add to the already full party playlist, “Even if you don’t want to talk to him the party’s happening, I’m fucking bored as and need a distraction, and how long’s it been since we threw a proper rager eh? Too long.” He closes his laptop, and spins around, looking at Harry, “now I’m about to go and buy shitloads of booze, you want to come and help me carry it all?”

Harry glares at Niall for approximately five seconds and then caves, “yeah alright, i’ve gotta have a shower first though, i reek”, standing straight and doing a big back stretch, he starts to walk out of the room, “let it be known that i am not happy about this though, I have an exam on Wednesday I really needed to study for tomorrow.”

“Yeah good luck with that one” Niall chortles, grabbing a bread roll from the bench and taking a large bite, “now hurry up with yer shower, I want to get all driving business out of the way early so I can get started on the day-drinking”. 

——————————————

So maybe this party was actually one of Niall’s better ideas. It’s just past 8:00pm, Harry’s been drinking for something like four hours now, but mainly just some beers earlier when they were setting up and then more recently spirits mixed in with some juice. A bunch of their mates from uni came by at 7:00, which is uncharacteristically early for their crowd but they’ve apparently got other plans later on some have just come by for a few drinks and to catch up for a bit while they have time. Harry is pleasantly buzzed, Niall’s party playlist is in stage one (starting to drink, chilled out tunes phase) and has been a complete hit.

As the party continues, and Niall’s playlist moves more into stage two (cheesy hits by Katy Perry, some of the soulful Wonderwall type, and plenty of Beyonce to lure people onto the dance floor), Harry finds himself really enjoying himself. After a particularly rowdy dance to Starships by Nicki Minaj, he finds himself chatting to a sweet girl with purple hair who had attempted to twerk with him on the dance floor.

“Seriously babe, for a fella with not much in the booty department, you’ve got some serious twerk talent”, she’s saying to him with a smile, both of them refuelling with another drink after their twerk off, “a couple of my girlfriends actually run a twerk class on Monday nights, it’s sort of like an exercise thing as well but you should definitely come some time if you’re free, it’s a laugh!”

Harry laughs back, inwardly cringing at the image of himself twerking but also somewhat intrigued by the idea. “Um yeah maybe, do they let boys in though? I can imagine there would be a few weirdos interested in that kind of thing.”  “Babe, no lurkers allowed, only twerkers” she smiles, emphasising the rhyme with a clap, “just come along and get involved and it’s all good, plus I know you now so I can totally tell the girls you’re cool. I’m Perrie by the way, I don’t know if we got to names out there did we”, she reaches out her hand, which Harry grasps.

“‘M Harry, I live here with Niall”, he replies while shaking her hand, “and I think I can definitely do my best to be a twerker, I usually go to yoga on Monday nights but maybe I can go to a different class this week and come along.”

“Oh, so you’re the Harry that lives with Niall!” she squeals, assessing him with a new kind of recognition, “interesting, but yes, do come along babe it would be a load of fun. If we’re doing a bit of a class trial i’d love to try out yoga with you as well, I’ve been meaning to get more flexible for an age.”

“Yeah sounds cool, I’ll give you my number and you can just text me the twerking details tomorrow if you remember” Harry rattles off his mobile number, looking over her shoulder as she takes it down, saving it as Harry with a peach emoticon next to his name.

“Awesome babes, will definitely be texting you tomorrow. Sorry to take your number and dash but i’ve just seen a text from my boyfriend saying he’s about to arrive, I best go find him” Perrie kisses Harry on the cheek as he says a quick goodbye, turning and dashing out of the room towards the front of the house.

He pours a refill of his drink and moves towards the front door, noticing that some friends are about to leave. It’s while they’re saying goodbye, that Harry notices Niall’s football friends walking over to the house, including a wide framed, brown eyed boy walking with a petite brunette that Harry is pretty sure is one Liam Payne, who happens to live with Louis and his appearance makes the possibility of Louis showing up much more of a probability. He says hello to a few of the boys in the group he’s met before as they walk in, including Liam who goes in for a high five while Harry goes for a hug, initiating an awkward dynamic that continues their entire introduction at the door, which ends with Harry walking quickly to pour himself another drink. There is no reason for him to be so nervous at the possibility of Louis coming, they hardly know each other and even if he does show up, he will most definitely be spending the majority of the night with Liam and other friends he already knows. 

Harry shakes his head at himself, trying to pull it together and pours himself a shot and downs it quickly, grimacing and then pouring himself a mixed drink, heavier on the vodka than they had been earlier in the night.

——————————

So Louis is definitely here, Harry had gone to use the toilet about ten minutes ago and saw him standing in the line with Perrie. Feeling confusingly betrayed by his new friend, he spun around and power walked in the opposite direction. Now he’s standing in the corner like a weirdo, keeping watch for Louis to re-enter the room and still in need of the bathroom.

Cara’s spotted him now however, deciding that this is the perfect moment to grind up against him in time to the music, dropping forward and looking back at him to laugh madly exactly when Louis returns to the room. Louis is talking intently with Perrie, looking down over her shoulder at her phone. He looks somewhat confused, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he looks outrageously handsome; his hair styled like Harry hasn't seen it before, quiffed at the front and curled around in the middle like some kind of delicious baked treat. 

It’s after that train of thought that Harry comes to realise how well and truly pissed he is all of a sudden, his mixed drinks very much catching up to him. He looks down at his glass, noticing that despite the fact he’d only filled it about ten minutes ago before the fateful bathroom trip, it’s completely empty.

He looks up, noticing Cara still grinding away on him and seeing that Perrie is walking over with a wicked grin on her face, a very nervous looking Louis trailing behind her. She pulls Cara away from him into a quick embrace, whispering something Harry doesn’t hear into her ear, but it makes Cara drop her head back and laugh loudly, looking back at Louis and Harry and winking when she catches Harry’s eye. What is even going on.

He looks to Louis in a daze, noticing how apprehensive Louis is looking, staring up at him and waving awkwardly when Harry looks him in the eye. 

“Hey man, great party!” he shouts over the music, leaning into Harry a little so Harry can smell his cologne. His incredible smelling cologne.

“Uh thanks”, he shouts back, giving a very ill-advised thumbs up and then cringing to himself at how horribly awkward the hand gesture had been. “How long have you been here?”

“Only about half an hour probably” Louis looks down at his phone, nodding when he sees the time glowing back at him, “yeah, half an hour. I had work until late, couldn’t get the shift covered. Would have been here earlier with Zayn or Liam otherwise probably, was glad to see the party still going even though I got here later than everyone.” He looks up at Harry with a grin, pausing then stepping further into Harry space and looking at him intently, speaking quietly but focused, “Harry, honestly I was really glad when Niall invited me along to this,” he swallows looking away for a second then back at Harry, “I’ve been wanting to see you again since the other week at the bar, I really wanted to apologise to you about what happened in person.”

Oh god, Harry seems so creepy and pathetic that Louis feel like he has to seek him out to apologise for a date that he did nothing wrong in having. God, he feels like a loser.

“Like, you seemed really upset when you left” Harry squeezes his eyes shut, feeling even worse that he had been so blatantly dismayed after the events at the bar, he thought he’s covered it up okay, “and like, that’s not what I wanted at all, like I really liked talking to you and i did really want to hang out with you in person and I really hope that I didn’t like, ruin it with my shitty scheduling.” Louis pauses and takes in a deep breath, looking down at his feet and speaking quickly “so if you’d ever want to maybe do it again i’d really like that and me and Aiden have decided we’re really more of a friendship than a relationship so you don’t need to worry about that or anything.” Looking Harry in the eye, he smiles hopefully, pausing and obviously waiting patiently for Harry to respond.

The issue with that however, is that about halfway through Louis’ lovely little speech, Harry had been hit with a wave of nausea that didn’t appear to be just passing. Attempting to pull himself together, he straightens his back and takes in a large breath of oxygen, breathing in deeply, then breathing out. He clears his throat, and puts his hand on Louis’ arm quickly stroking it. “Louis,” he exhales, stopping and retracting his hand to touch his mouth, counting to three, “oh god i’m going to be sick” he runs past Louis and to the closest sterile area he can think of, which happens to be the kitchen sink surrounded by party patrons making themselves drinks. He spews loudly into the sink, hearing a few revolted moans around him and a loud cackle that could only belong to Niall. Slumped over the sink, he feels a warm pair of arms gather around his shoulders and gets pulled back from the sink. He groans, not feeling completely recovered yet and unwilling to leave the area. Weakened from the booze though, he allows himself to be pulled through the party and towards his bedroom, falling over as he arrives in the doorway, half standing up and then stumbling the remaining few steps to his bed, falling face forward onto it.

“No babe, don’t lay face down you’ll bloody suffocate” he hears a voice behind him say, and feels someone push his shoulder to flip him around onto his back. He groans, clutching his stomach and retching again, “Oh don’t vomit on your bed! There’s a bucket here just lean over the side, there’s a good lad.” He vomits loudly into the bucket provided, sighing when it’s over and spitting into the bucket, leaning back on his bed utterly exhausted. 

Something cold is pressed against his face, “Quickly have some water before you fall asleep, wash your mouth a little” the voice says, pulling him up by the shoulders again and pouring water into his mouth, waiting for him to swallow three times before letting him lay back. He curls on his side, faintly realising that he’s still wearing his jeans but too tired to care.

Just before falling into unconsciousness, he notices the door to his room open and close, someone walking out with a whispered “Good night”. 

————————————

 

Date Three: Niall and Liam join forces and Nick screws it up

Louis walks out of his lecture, pushing his notebook and pens into his backpack as he exits the room. It’s been four days since Niall and Harry’s party, and despite having been on the lookout for either of them at ever since, he has unfortunately not run into them once. 

After putting a very drunk (and somehow still adorable) Harry to bed, Louis had reentered the party and sought out Liam and Zayn, who ended up standing by the coach with Niall, catching up and quite possibly doing renditions of Harry’s stumble to the kitchen.

“Have you all quite finished?” he says with a flourish of his hand, joining the group and putting his arm around Zayn’s shoulders.

“Lou! Mate! Was wondering where you’d got to and if you’d make it out of Harry’s bedroom alive” Niall laughs, punching him on the arm, “was about to come and check on ya, Harry can be a right nuisance when he gets that pissed.”

Louis snorts, alarmed at what Niall is insinuating and quick to clear it up, “No, no, he was out like a light as soon as we got in there, had another quick vomit then fell straight to sleep.”

Niall snorts, “Ah alright, well listen you boys enjoy yerselves, honestly grab whatever yer want from the kitchen if ya feel like another drink” Niall slurs, starting to dance over to a pretty brunette girl on the dance floor, “I’ve got other matters I need to attend to”, he grins back at them one more time, then grabs the hips of the girl he was approaching, pulling her into dance with him.

Looking back to Liam and Zayn, Louis meets both of their gazes already on him. He shrugs, “honestly that’s all that happened, he was way too pissed to even respond to what i was asking him which is a bit shit.” He looks away, thinking about the admission he’d planned on telling for days, practising what to say and then earlier tonight, finally finding the courage to say it. All week he’d stared at Harry’s name on his phone, always deciding that it was a conversation he’d rather have in person. 

“Did you ask him though?” Zayn cuddles into Louis’ side, sipping his beer.

“Yeah i did, not much of a response though” Louis looks at him quickly, forcing a smile, “honestly though lads, I’m feeling wiped out after work and after that series of events I’m not really in party mode, i might just head home.”

“All good mate, that’s totally understandable”, Liam pulls him and Zayn into a big group hug, exaggeratedly kissing Louis on the cheek despite Louis’ squirming, “we love you yeah.”

“Yeah yeah whatever you softie” Louis pulls out of the embrace and smiles at his two best friends. “I’ll catch you in the morning, have fun yeah.”

With that, Louis had left the party and hasn’t heard of Harry since. He had texted him the next day, a simple “feeling better?” but he hadn’t heard anything back. After much deliberation, and consultation from Liam and Zayn, he had added Harry on Facebook, and had been accepted as a friend almost immediately. It felt promising and had been great for stalking purposes, but Harry was obviously alive and using technology if he had been able to do that, so why wasn't he texting back?

He pulls at the sleeves of his hoody, starting to walk to the footy oval Liam plays games at. He has a game on tonight, and while Louis usually makes the effort to come to most of his games Liam had been particularly adamant about this one, even going so far as to reserve a seat and ticket for him.

Checking his phone and seeing a “hey r u still comin?” from Liam Louis rolls his eyes, pointedly not replying and walking slightly slower than usual to get to the oval.

———————————

As he arrives, walking onto the grandstand he makes eye contact with Liam on the oval, who is staring out at the crowd with a concerned expression until he makes eye contact with Louis, his face falling into obvious relief upon seeing him. Louis waves at him, confused about his reaction before turning back to the stairs he’s climbing. He reads the seat allocation on his ticket, and looks down at the numbers present on each stair, walking up towards it.

Once he reaches the row he’s on he peers down through the people already seated, judging how uncomfortable it’s going to be to squeeze past them. He cringes when he notices a pregnant woman halfway down, mentally calculating how much room he has and considering going from the other side, when he sees Harry. Sitting in the seat next to the one he’s allocated to.

Now Liam’s strange behaviour makes sense.

He double checks his seat number, even though he knows that it’s definitely the seat next to Harry, and curses under his breath. “fuck you mate” he texts to Liam, and commences the walk to his seat.

“Sorry, sorry I’m sorry!” he says, tripping over the pregnant woman’s legs as she tries awkwardly to manoeuvre her body to the side to make room for him. He makes it past, only just, and looks up to see Harry staring at him horrifiedly, then pulling his phone out of his pocket urgently and rapidly texting someone.

“Hey Harry”, he starts, gingerly sitting down on the seat beside him, “how’s it going?”

“Uh, hey Lou” Harry looks down at his hands, “not bad really.” He takes a deep breath and rolls his eyes at himself, continuing in a nervous tone, “I’m definitely doing compared to the weekend” the corners of his mouth tilt upwards bashfully, as he hazards a look it Louis’ direction.

Louis breathes out a sigh of relief at Harry’s openness, grinning back at him and punching him playfully on the arm, “yeah mate you were pretty out if it” he chuckles, “we’ve all been there though, once Liam had to push me home from a club passed out in a trolley, not my finest moment right there.”

Harry opens his mouth wide and laughs, some of the tension leaving his posture, “you know, i actually think Niall told me about that but like, before i knew who you were so it’s always been this faceless person in my image of Liam pushing someone home in a trolley, it’s so much better an image now i know it’s you”. He looks over at Louis smiling, making eye contact with him for the first time since Louis had sat down, “hey look, also i’m sorry about the other night, it definitely wasn’t my best moment. I do kind of remember you putting me to bed and taking care of me though, so thanks for that, I really appreciated it. Especially the bottle of water you left beside my bed, that was very nice to wake up to.”

“Ah yes, well hydration is often extremely undervalued in hangover recovery, i wanted to ensure you didn’t make that mistake. It’s no problem at all though Harry, really, like I said we’ve all done it once or twice and you were really quite cute in your inebriated state, nothing like Liam who has a few times in the past tried to throw a swing at me as i’ve put him to bed.”

“No! Not peaceful, lovely Liam!?”

“The very same, it’s not a regular occurrence by any means, but he can sometimes get a bit weird and alpha male when he’s had a lot to drink, very out of character.”

Harry shakes his head, looking down at the football oval where Liam is currently waving and pulling funny faces to a baby on the sidelines, raising his eyebrows in disbelief, “I don’t believe it.”

“Honestly I can’t really believe it, and i’ve been there to see it so I don’t blame you.”

Harry smiles, then bites his lower lip and furrows his brow, seemingly thinking intently about something. “Listen Louis”, he starts, turning so he’s facing more towards Louis, “I felt really weird about bringing it up, just because like, I was really embarrassed about how the night ended for me, but I do remember what you were saying to me before I had to rush away.”

Louis stomach drops as he remembers how he’d started to ask Harry on a date, a spur of the moment decision he’s made on the night that he had assumed Harry would forget. 

“And like, I’m really glad you said what you said, and I was thinking about what you suggested, and I’d really really like to -”

“Harold!” a voice chimes in from behind Harry, effectively killing the moment and distracting them both from their conversation. Louis looks up at the person who had spoken, seeing a talk, lanky boy with his hair jelled into a large quiff. He’s grinning down at Harry with a beer in his hand, and pulls him up into a quick hug before taking the seat next to him, continuing, “god the first football game i come to and i end up seated next to you, what are the chances!”

“Yeah, that’s right” Harry says back, “Niall actually bought this ticket for me, i usually just hang about at the sidelines with the rest of the team but for some reason he wanted me to get a different perspective of the game this time” he shifts his eyes over to Louis.

“Right, fair enough, and quite lucky for me hey”, the boy leans past Harry, looking at Louis, “so sorry to interrupt mate, I’m Nick by the way”, he reaches for Louis’ hand, shaking it vigorously, when Louis reaches over.

“Louis”, Louis responds a bit abruptly, somewhat put out at Nick interrupting his and Harry’s conversation.

“Right, nice to meet you. Now what’s going on this match Haz, you’re going to have to fill me in. Who’s who, what’s what? Any inter-locker room drama I should know about before the game starts, tension to look out for?” he sips his beer, scanning the oval, “Oh who’s the big armed brunette doing laps?”

Harry replies quietly to Nick, looking over at Louis apologetically, as Louis sits back in his seat and waits for Nick to stop monopolising the conversation so he can talk to Harry.

————————————

So as it turns out, Nick never stops talking. 

As the game has progressed, he’s gradually leant closer and closer to Harry, his hand brushing Harry’s thigh regularly, and after their initial introduction, has paid no attention to Louis whatsoever. Harry’s attempted to include Louis in the conversation a few times, asking him questions and retelling stories to him, but every time Louis got back into the conversation dynamic Nick had interrupted him while he was talking, and continued to steer the conversation back to topics only relevant to him and Harry. At first Louis hadn’t minded, giving Nick the benefit of the doubt and assuming they just had a lot to catch up on, however as time progressed and it became more and more clear that Nick obviously had a crush on Harry, he had started to feel increasingly agitated and like an awkward third wheel.

As soon as the game finishes, Louis stands out of his seat and after a quick mumbled good bye to a very put out looking Harry and glare over at Nick, leaves the aisle (this time trying a different tactic in moving past the pregnant woman and accidentally pushing his arse a bit too close to her than what could be considered appropriate), and walks down to the side line to find Liam and give him a spraying and maybe ask for a hug. 

After about five minutes of searching the area however he still hasn't sighted Liam anywhere, although he does see Nick and Harry walking together towards the oval, Nick placing his hand firmly on Harry’s lower back. Rolling his eyes, he decides to just walk home and catch up with with Liam at home, hopefully over many beers and a tray of nachos or any other comfort food equivalent.

—————————————

Date Four: they finally get it right

It’s a Saturday night, and Louis is laying in bed alone.

“So he’s definitely in there?” Harry nervously runs his hands through his hair, looking towards Louis’ bedroom door.

“Well he hasn’t emerged for a good three hours, but unless he’s like, climbed out the window or something he’s definitely in there.” Liam’s sitting on the couch eying the baked treats that Harry has brought to their house.

“So should I just go in there or call him or what?” Harry continues to stare at the bedroom door anxiously, pacing past Liam and walking into the kitchen, pouring himself a large glass of water and gulping it down, “I can’t imagine he’d be too happy if i just waltzed in, what if he’s naked?”

“Probably is to be honest, i’ve made the mistake of not knocking before and it is not pretty.”

Harry silently disagrees with that statement but is too stressed to vocalise it. “Okay, i think i’m just going to maybe phone him? Say I’m thinking of coming over and is that okay?”

“What happens when he freaks out post conversation and then comes to freak out to me or Zayn and sees you here then? Would make you look a bit forward, or maybe just like a really fast walker?”

“Oh god I did not think this through.” 

Immediately after the game earlier that day Harry had had to have a few stern words with Nick about the status of their relationship, all of which he took fairly well. They hugged, and Nick laughed it off, and as Harry has walked away he had desperately brain stormed ways he could make up the disaster that had been the entire footy game to Louis.

He had ended up stress cooking a batch of muffins, and when Niall told him to use them as an apology he had wrapped them up in his special decorative paper, put them in a container, grabbed a leftover bottle of wine from the party, and walked straight over to Louis’ house, texting only Liam (who’s number Niall had offered him) in warning. 

Now he’s sitting in Louis living room with Liam like a freak while Louis has apparently fallen asleep in his room.

“Just knock on the door! I’m sure he -“

Liam is cut off as Louis emerges from his bedroom, in loose track pants and a grey t-shirt, glaring over at Liam and going to say something when his eyes catch on Harry, shock taking over his features and the finger he’d started to point accusingly falling minutely.

“Harry, hey!” he says in a high pitched tone, obviously panicked and leaning towards his bedroom, “didn’t realise you were coming over mate, just might quickly change if we’re all hanging out, i didn’t even know you guys um, hung out? No matter, just give me a sec.”

“Louis stop”, Harry is taken over by a sense of bravado and justice, “Liam do you mind giving us a second?” Liam smirks and leaves the room, again looking at the muffins longingly as he walks away.

Harry takes a deep breath, bracing himself, “look, i just have a few things i wanted to, um, say to you and i didn’t really want to wait until i run into you again because that hasn’t exactly worked for us in the past and I kind of want to make this work and um.” He pauses, and looks at Louis, seeing only openness is his eyes, which enables him to continue is a stronger voice,”I’m sorry about today, Nick’s just a mate who apparently has had a crush on me for a while and for whatever reason chose today to act on it. It’s not what i wanted to happen at all, and i’m sorry again because he was being really awkward towards you and i wish you hadn’t been made to feel uncomfortable.” He bites his lip and swallows, “Look Louis i know it’s not been a smooth sailing beginning to a relationship, but I do like you quite a lot, and I really want to finally be able to go on a date with you and see if this is something that we can work with a bit because i think it might be.”

He stands silently for a few seconds, looking at Louis imploringly and receiving wide eyes and a small smile in response. 

“I uh, made these muffins for you, and I brought wine to like apologise” he retrieves the two objects, brandishing them towards Louis.

Louis smiles a little wider in response, smelling the muffins and looking appreciatively at the wine, “Harry”, he starts, “I wish you hadn’t done this while I was in my tracky dacks” Harry laughs along with his self-deprecating chuckle, “but this was really lovely of you, and I think I’d like to go on a date with you also, as you must know considering I asked you on one last weekend.” He pauses and looks up at Harry with a smile “absolutely no Nicks allowed though”

Harry guffaws, “fair enough, completely fair enough.” He looks at their surroundings, the wine and muffins in hand. “I don’t know about you, but we seem to have all of the items for a date at our disposal here, do you think-?”

“Harry was this planned?” Louis laughs “are you that smooth an operator that you know I’d be willing to eat baked treats and drink wine with you on the couch on a Saturday night?”

Harry leans back, looking around at the couch not far behind him. “Well no, but i can’t say I’m unhappy with how well this worked out.” He looks back at Louis, putting his hand on his arm, “Shall we?”

“I think we shall, I’ll get us some glasses, go and sit down I’ll be there in second”

Harry walks to the couch and ungracefully dives on to it, drawing a laugh from Louis as he leaves the room.

———————————

“Niall it happened!” Louis hears from Liam’s bedroom as he reaches for two glasses, “Yeah. Yeah. They’re having a wine on the couch now! I know man, good work giving Harry the idea with the muffins. Alright i’ll leave you to it, catch.” Liam hangs up his phone, and leans out of his room, catching Louis’ eye and smiling bashfully. “We’re really happy about what just happened.” he says to Louis, who raises his eyebrows in response.

“Indeed Liam, I think we all are”, Louis smiles to himself as he pours the wine, thinking of the gangly, sweet boy waiting for him on his couch, and the fact that they appear to finally have time together, uninterrupted.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Comments and kudos appreciated xxx


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